NIA arrests key Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operative

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency has arrested an alleged key operative of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Habibur Rahman, following his deportation from Saudi Arabia early on Monday morning. Sources said NIA took Rahman into custody immediately after he landed at Capital’s IGI Airport.

Even though NIA officials claimed that they had received a specific input that Rahman would be travelling to India, intelligence sources said that the terror operative was deported from Saudi Arabia which highlighted the increased co-operation between the two countries on the security front. Investigations revealed that Rahman was the handler of an important LeT militant Shaikh Abdul Naeem alias Nomi, who was initially arrested in 2007 on charges of helping two Pakistani and one Kashmiri terrorist enter India from the porous Bangla-desh border. Naeem, however, had managed to escape from police custody in August 2014 while he was being taken for a court hearing from Kolkata to Mahara-shtra. After his esca-pe from custody also Naeem continued with his terror activities for about three years on directives of his handlers operating out of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.